Tori volunteered for the Self-Realization Fellowship Convocation at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles this week. I planned to take the train up for two nights and stay in the room she was sharing with her friend, Debbie, but through a stroke of luck, my friend, Chad, also happened to be in DTLA at the same time for a work project and had a bigger hotel room. On Tuesday, I arrived in Oceanside to take the 5:57pm train but there was a two hour train delay and I didn't make it to Union Station until 10:15pm, instead of 8pm. I had been looking forward to eating a French Dip Sandwich from Phillipe the Original, the nearby shop that invented them in 1918 but they closed at 10pm. After a short metro ride, I arrived at Chad's hotel, the Omni Los Angeles, at 11pm and went to sleep.
Chad left for work at 5am and I walked around downtown after breakfast. My first stop was the nearby 2nd Street Tunnel that runs beneath Bunker Hill that is known for its glossy white-tiled walls and dramatic lighting that have made it one of the most famous and frequently filmed locations in cinema history. The tiles are now in rough condition and covered in graffiti along the bottom, but it was worth seeing. I also walked past the historic Los Angeles Times Building, a monumental Art Deco building, designed by Gordon B. Kaufmann in 1935, with "THE TIMES" carved in giant letters across the top of the limestone facade. The building is now vacant after the paper's headquarters moved to El Segundo. I wanted to visit the 27th-floor observation deck on the stepped pyramid tower of the Los Angeles City Hall but it was closed. This was my second failed attempt.
Tori would not be free until lunch time, so I visited the Walt Disney Concert Hall with its sweeping stainless-steel exterior designed by Frank Gehry and took the self-guided audio tour, narrated by actor John Lithgow. Winding through the interior, I visited BP Hall inside the lobby with curving Douglas fir walls, designed for pre-concert talks, chamber music recitals, and special events. Since the orchestra was not rehearsing or performing, I was lucky to be able to enter the main 2,265-seat hall with its 6,125-pipe organ. The hall's acoustics were designed by Yasuhisa Toyota with a series of convex wooden ceiling sails that bounce sound evenly throughout the space without electronic amplification. Exiting onto the Blue Ribbon Garden, I visited the lotus-shaped fountain also designed by Gehry, handcrafted from thousands of broken Royal Delft porcelain shards as a tribute to Lillian Disney. At the end, I climbed the stairs to the upper exterior walkway of the concert hall with its views of downtown. It was intensely hot up there with all the concentrated sunlight reflecting off the stainless-steel surfaces.
At noon, I met Tori at the Bonaventure and we took a city bus to ROW DTLA for lunch at Pizzeria Bianco, the restaurant by James Beard Award-Winning chef, Chris Bianco. The sourdough-crust pizzas are cooked in a wood-fired oven. We ordered one of the chef's most well-known creations, the Pizza Rosa made without tomato sauce or mozzarella, instead topped with Red Onion, Pistachios, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Rosemary and extra virgin olive oil. It was very good, but our favorite was the Pizza Marinara with only Tomato Sauce, Oregano, Garlic and extra virgin olive oil. We were both surprised by how much we loved the cheese-free pizza with its bright tomato sauce that reminded us of bruschetta perfected. The ROW DTLA complex used to be the Southern Pacific Railroad Terminal and it served as a primary wholesale produce and freight hub where railcars loaded and unloaded goods right at the warehouses. The six original historic buildings were preserved and adapted into the current shops and restaurants, featuring exposed brick, concrete loading docks, iron girders, and tree-lined pedestrian alleys between the former freight bays. It is a little oasis in the middle of a rough area.
Chad had finished work by the time I returned to the hotel room and we hung out before driving his rental car to our dinner reservations at the Girl & the Goat in the Arts District. This was my second time and Chad's first at this restaurant by Top Chef Winner, Stephanie Izard. The server recommended sharing four or five plates so we ordered the Sautéed Green Beans (fish sauce vinaigrette & cashews), Goat Empanadas (poblano crema, cojita & pineapple-blueberry relish) and the Sticky Glazed Pork Shank (weiser melon salad, cucumber chili crunch, hoisin mayo & hot mustard). The Green Beans were as delicious as I remembered and I was happy to try Goat for the first time, since the Goat Curry was not on the menu again. The Pork Shank was so tender and it was fun eating it with the naan and lettuce cups provided with the dish. For dessert, we shared the Mango Sticky Rice (mango tamarind sorbet, pickled green mango, coconut cloud & watermelon granita). After dinner, we watched the movie, "Life of Chuck", a favorite of Chad's, as we discussed its philosophical meaning.
On Thursday morning, I had an Iced Mint Mocha from Surf Boy Coffee. It was so tasty, I brought an extra one to Tori later in the day when we planned to visit Silverlake together. After visiting the Gas Co. Tower to see the giant water wall in the lobby that is no longer there (Thanks AI!), I took the metro for a late breakfast at Langer’s Delicatessen in MacArthur Park. The Jewish deli was founded in 1947 and is famous for its traditional classics, winning the James Beard Award in 2001. Dodging homeless in this rough part of town, I sat at the counter and ordered the #19 Pastrami Sandwich on Rye Bread with Swiss Cheese, Coleslaw, and Russian Dressing, considered by some critics to be the best pastrami sandwich in the world. It was so good, but also so filling for this time in the morning!
Chad had left for San Diego before I returned but I still had the room until the noon checkout when I took my bag and a Surf Boy Coffee to meet Tori at the Bonaventure. Tori was still exhausted and we decided to skip visiting Silverlake so I hung out in her room as she took a nap before we walked around the SRF Convocation, visiting the Book Store and Photo Gallery. We hung out at the central hotel bar until Tori's next class and I had to leave for for my 5pm train ride home at Union Station. I thought about going to Phillipe the Original for the French Dip sandwich I missed but I was still too full from Langer's. I watched the new Naked Gun movie on the ride home. It was funnier than I expected from the trailer and I had to suppress my laughter on the busy train. It was a fun little getaway!
